Sensors In Cellphones

What is a Sensor?
It measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. What are some sensors we use every day? Thermometers Radar guns, red light cameras Automatic door openers Cameras GPS

Why are we talking about Sensors?

Sensors have been used in cellphones since they were invented Microphone, number keys

What made smartphones smart?

Touchscreens, accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS, cameras, etc. . Allowed cellphones explode into different markets. Instead of carrying around 10 separate devices, now you just need 1.

Smartphone block diagram:

Types of Sensors:

Accelerometers:
Measures change in the velocity in axial dimensions (typically two or three axes). Units: m/s2 or g. Most of the smartphone accelerometers trade large value range for high precision, e.g. IPhone 4 range: 2g, precision 0.018 g.

How does Accelerometers work?

Gyroscope:
Detects the current orientation of the device, or changes in the orientation. Precisely: orientation can be computed from the angular rate that is detected by the gyroscope, expressed in rad/s on 3 axis:

3 Axis MEMS Gyroscopes

Structure Working

Capacitive Sensors:
Capacitive touch screen sensors are widely used in our current, modern everyday lives! Measures the capacitive effect of the human finger (or conductor) across a uniform electrostatic field.

Physical principle of capacitive sensors:

The primary physical principle of capacitive touch screen sensors is as the name suggests: Capacitance. A small voltage is applied to a layer of conductive material (typ. indium-tin-oxide, ITO) underneath an insulator (i.e. glass) which results in a uniform electrostatic field. As such, when a conductor (i.e. a human finger) touches the insulator, a capacitor is formed. This capacitance is what is detected by the sensor.

Implementation of capacitive Touch:

Implementation(contd.)

PROXIMITY SENSOR
Senses distance between the user and observed surface. Main function is to avoid accidental touch. Can turn off the screen by avoiding disturbance. Maintains threshold.

CONCLUSION
The tremendous growth of sensor technology in Smartphone increases day by day . Success of smart phones is leading to an increasing amount of sensors in mobile phones to provide new features/ services to endusers, to reduce cost through more integration or to improve hardware performance.